A Systematic Review of Ergonomics Risk Assessment Methods for Pushing and Pulling Activities at Workplace

Abstract

It is vital to assess workplace pushing and pulling (PP) activities to manage musculoskeletal injuries among employees. However, there is still no clearly-suited risk assessment method. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of risk assessment methods for PP activities at the workplace. Thus, the review employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Two primary journal databases were searched, namely Scopus and Science Direct. Furthermore, to ensure the robustness of the study, the searches were expended via handpicking, snowball identification, and consultation with ergonomics experts. Atlas.ti version 8 software was used to analyse the identified articles thematically. The search resulted in nine articles eligible for the systematic analysis. From the articles, six assessment methods used force measurement as the main indicators, while three assessment methods used the weight of the load as measurement indicators. The assessment tools did not cover all the risk factors for PP activities. Besides, there was a lack of evidence showing the assessment tools or methods' reliability, validity, and usability. This systematic review highlighted the advantages and limitations of existing assessment methods, and no one method fits all. The findings showed that the assessment methods for PP activities still needed a force measurement and did not cover all the significant risk factors associated with PP. In addition, no clarifications were presented regarding the assessment methods’ reliability, validity, and applicability.